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Lexar deals out a 600X hand of SDXC memory cards

The pro-oriented SD cards reach new speeds for Lexar's line. Also revealed at CES: Lexar boasts the first 128GB SD card with a fast UHS-I interface.

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Stephen Shankland
2 min read

Lexar announced a gaggle of new SD memory cards at CES today, with 400X and 600X data-transfer speeds to keep up with professionals' needs higher resolution videos and photos.

The SDHC and SDXC cards use the UHS-I interface for faster transfer speeds (SDXC is a newer version of the SD standard that extends to higher memory capacities.) Most of them will arrive in February, but Lexar is particularly chuffed about a 400X 128GB SDXC card due in April that the company boasts will be the first at that capacity using UHS-I.

For those who prefer absolutes, 400X translates to 60MBps and 600X to 90MBps. That may sound fast--it is for SD cards--but a the higher-end CompactFlash format and its new sequel called XQD reach higher. Last week, Lexar announced 1000X CompactFlash cards that read data at 150MBps and write at 145MBps, and Sony announced the first XQD cards that reach 125MBps.

Most cameras can't reach these speeds, but they can help when it comes time to keep up with sustained high-resolution video without skipping a beat or to offload files to a computer.

The 600x UHS-I cards cost $75 for 16GB, $125 for 32GB, and $270 for 64GB. The 400x UHS-I cards cost $35 for 8GB, $50 for 16GB, $80 for 32GB, $180 for 64GB, and $300 for 128GB. For comparison, Lexar's 128GB CompactFlash card, while faster, costs three times as much at $900.

All the cards will be available in February except the 64GB 600X card in March and the 128GB 400X card in April, Lexar said.